The Russellville Democrat., 1887-08-03
A DAME INTERVIEW.
How Woman Reporter Compelled John
 Quincy Adams to Talk.

As a boy, being fond of bathing in the Potomac, frequently resorted thither at early hours of summer morn- ings The favorite point for such en- joylncnt was at ''the sycamores, so- called because group of those trees stood on certain part of the shore. The location was in the immediate vi- cinity of the present Washington monu- ment. There l had sometimes the honor of attempting to rival the natory skill of John Quincy Adams. It was his costume to seek the refreshmcnt of the River of Swans -Pow-towmack- at the dewey hours of four or five o'clock in the morning. My young compan- ions and encircled him as. minnows may swim about whale, but with no fear, for among children he was as q child.
 A strange incident occurred there one day. Mrs. Anne Royal, stout, aged and eccentric widow of a revolu- tionary soldier, had come to Washing ton some time before and undertaken the publication of a weekly paper en- titled the H2,tresS, in size little be- yond a sheet of foolscap, blurred print, and more typographical errors than lines. Biographical accounts of gen. tlemen of the Cabinet and of Congress were it's main features, with notices, too, of distinguished ladies of the me- tropolis. If the elite furnished her, on her call, with the proper data and prop CT pay, their lives were made glorious in the next number of the unique jour nal, and they were also presented as angels. either masculine or feminine; but if her visit, as did happen now and then, met with refusal, the imag- inative editer would invent won- 1 derful circumstances and attrib- ute them to such personages These, in publication, startled, and even terrified the subjects thereof and all their society friends So it became necessary to buy off the vengeful madam and to obtain from her a pleas ant report Cases of fancy were often more profitable to the royal treasury than those which were authentic. So severe and denunciatory was the edi- torial tone of this Saturday visitor that it soon created dread in all quarters, and few were brave enough to provoke her wrath by declining the application of the proprietor. The demand granted, the consequent laudation proved scarcely more acceptable, being extrav- agant to absurdity, and read with gen. eral laughter.
 No paper of the period in Washing ton, not even the stately and venerable l National HstelItgencer, could compare in extent of local subscription with the list of s.The Huntress. The active and resolute madam would have it, and made it so, by going from house to l house, office to office, stores, depart ments of the Government, in word l everywhere. The enterprising widow had long sought an opportunity to pay her respects to Hon. John Quincy, but somehow-perhaps John Quincy knew-fate failed to favor her. She chanced to learn the early summer morning practice of his late Excel leney, and the very next day repaired to the river and the syeamores. There he was, serenely disporting. She looked on with self-congratulation. The swim mer approached the shore at last, nearer and nearer, until he observed her ladyship in waiting, then, the stream admitting, stood, head and neck exposed above the surface. Thus situated, a prisoner, she addressed him, introduced herself and held sufficient talk to furnish subject for a fine article the following Hzntress, which accom- plished, she retired, and once more all was quiet on the Potomac. ."-Seaton Donoho, in Brooktua Magasiae.